"Wayne?" Rosmerta covered her mouth.
Was this six-foot-tall cloaked man really the twelve-year-old Vincent Wayne?
They said Muggles had some kind of feed that made them grow faster. Could this be something even more magical than magic?
After being smacked around with a barrage of slaps, Sam was clearly much more obedient.
"Ma'am, we still have something to do." Vincent turned and pushed open the tavern door.
No explanation was the best explanation.
Sam returned the towel covering his face to Rosmerta.
"Beautiful lady, next time I'll tell you about my adventures in the South American jungle."
His face was red enough to turn purple, yet it was not swollen. Maybe it was because he got beaten so often.
"The South American jungle?" Vincent understood immediately. "Don't tell me that's where you'd been hiding?"
"I wasn't hiding!" Sam rubbed his aching, burning face as he walked. "I was on vacation!"
"What kind of vacationer doesn't bring money?"
"Mind your own business!"
Rosmerta watched them bicker and tossed her absurd thoughts from earlier out of her mind.
Sam was around twenty-five. There was no way he would not fight back after being slapped so many times by Vincent, who was half his age.
He was witty and funny, too. He did not seem like a masochist.
Wayne was hardly a rare surname. Perhaps this was simply a low-profile wizard who happened to share the name.
On a cliff outside Hogsmeade, Sam was explaining the essentials of Apparition to Vincent.
"Don't listen to the nonsense from the school and the Ministry of Magic. The more things you try to remember, the more complicated you'll make it."
He suddenly vanished into a black-and-white vortex, then suddenly appeared behind Vincent.
There had been no warning at all. He had not even raised